Birding with Deon

So, yeh, i finally took a fellow bird photog by the name of Deon up on a long-standing offer to come check out his yard, he used to get Evening Grosbeaks and a few years ago the species was high on my list of "better shots" required. We never did get together until this weekend, it was worth the trip out, he truly does have a special backyard, the first bird i saw when arriving was a splendid Black-headed Grosbeak, close!
wasn't set up for a shot yet alas.

Steller's Jay



Brown-headed Cowbird



Northwestern Crow

At one point things got a little quiet, we realized later that the Cooper's Hawk sitting down the hill may have had something to with it.




A surprise visitor i wasn't expecting was this Pileated Woodpecker, which dropped in for a very quick look.




I still hadn't gotten a really nice shot of the Black-headed Grosbeak as it became a bit scarce but when i was packing up the gear (after we decided to wrap things up) it came back and i was able to get a clean shot of it, cool.




After the backyard Deon showed us a couple of his local birding spots and we had a nice walk but as it was near noon, bird activity had slowed down a bit, although it was still quite active.
we came across a couple of Common Yellowthroats singing away and i was quite happy with the shots from that session.

Later Deon showed us another spot where he figured Bullock's Oriole could be found.

All in all, an enjoyable morning in and around Maple Ridge with a nice guy, with a great yard, and a good eye for bird photography, cheers!